


Statement Begins

by Blizzard96



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Based on The Magnus Archives, Gen, but ATEEZ and A.C.E are recurring, there will be other groups mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2020-10-12 00:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20555033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard96/pseuds/Blizzard96
Summary: Maintenance Request #01909993Request from Park Junhee, Head Archivist of The Magnus Institute, for some recording equipment to help organize archival records from recent years.Status: Approved





	1. Reflection

**[A recording from the Head Archivist]**

“My name is Park Junhee, and I am the current Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute in Seoul. My predecessor, Mr. Lee Taemin, has left the Institute under mysterious and somewhat vague circumstances. 

In the two months I have been Head Archivist, it shocks me how completely disorganized the Archive is, and so I have taken it upon myself to begin re-recording all of the case files in the recent years to ensure that the records will remain consistent. I have already begun-

Yuchan? What are you holding? That’s disgusting! Don’t bring that in-"

**[Case number 0170515. Statement from Jung Taekwoon regarding the behavior of his group mate, Lee Jaehwan. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement Begins.]**

“I don’t even know why I’m here. This place is ridiculous, you know that, right? Do you all really believe in ghosts and demons and monsters? I guess it’s a paycheck. I can understand that, though you should all probably update your equipment. Who even uses tape recorders anymore?

I’m getting off track. I came in to talk about something else. I know I said I didn’t believe in all that supernatural stuff, but… I don’t know how else to explain what’s happened. It was actually Hongbin who suggested I come give my statement to all of you, and that if anyone had a clue what was going on it would be you guys. I’m sure you’ll review this recording and laugh about it in the break room, but it’ll be nice to get it all off my chest. Best case scenario, this recording goes missing.

Anyway, it all started two months ago. I’m sure you’ll do your own research on it, but I’m in an idol group called VIXX. We were in between comebacks. That day was pretty relaxed, just our normal dance practice that started in the morning with no scheduled interviews or appearances that day. We got some bad news from our manager that we’d be practicing in a different studio from our usual one. Apparently there was some maintenance going on? I can’t quite remember. 

We got to the new studio, and it looked pretty normal. A bit more run down than usual, but we all believed that they were working on a tight schedule and couldn’t find another place. Now that I think back on it, our manager was pretty scatterbrained that morning. I think I just assumed that he was stressed out about our photoshoot the next day, and paid no attention to how faraway his eyes looked.

Our manager left us almost immediately. This wasn’t too uncommon. We’ve been in the business for a while, and we knew how to get started on our routine. The building was a bit confusing at first, though. I remember some boy walked into the lobby where we were waiting. I thought he might be a trainee or maybe some rookie idol. He was young enough.

He introduced himself as Choi Jongho. Or maybe it was Junho. I can’t really remember, he barely talked. We asked him where the practice room was, and he led us to one way in the back of the building. It was at the end of this long hallway. I remember that the lights overhead seemed to get dimmer and dimmer the further we walked. Hongbin made some kind of joke about it, but none of us really laughed. It felt like we walked for ten minutes down this hallway, but whenever I looked back it didn’t look very long.

I thought I might just be tired. We’d been up late the last night at the recording studio. In fact, I think I wrote most of that day’s weirdness off to my own exhaustion. I’m not sure now how much was real and how much was a product of my own tired brain.

The room Jongho led us to was actually brighter than the hallway, which was a relief to all of us. The inside looked normal. Jongho left before anyone of us could thank him for his help, though I still didn’t think it was that odd.

We went about our normal stretches and warmups before moving into practicing choreography for our next comeback. As time went on, we became more comfortable in the new space, eventually managing to put the initial weirdness from the studio out of our minds. In no time, the others were all joking around like they normally did, and everything was good.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been inside a practice room, but we have mirrors all along the walls so we can check our positions and expressions. It’s very important for us to watch ourselves and the others so that we can give suggestions and improve. 

That day, Jaehwan was watching the mirrors a lot more than usual. In fact, Hongbin caught Jaehwan staring at the mirrors when we were taking a ten minute break once. He teased him about it, and some of the others joined in. Jaehwan snapped out of whatever had made him stare at his reflection so intently and started joking back, but… I remember thinking there had been something off in his expression while he was looking. Like he was seeing something or someone in the mirror that I couldn’t. 

Anyway, the rest of practice lasted well into the afternoon. At some point, the others went out to get us all lunch and bring it back to the studio. Jaehwan and I had lost the rock-paper-scissors tournament and were left with cleaning up the room. That didn’t take too long, just sweeping the floor and setting up a folding table and some chairs that had been leaning up against the wall. 

I remember that I was on my phone as we waited for the others to return, when I looked over to see Jaehwan staring at the mirror again. He was sitting cross legged on the ground and just… looking. I almost asked what was wrong, but something in my gut said not to break the silence. I watched as Jaehwan slowly lifted his hand and reached out to touch the mirror and, this is going to sound so ridiculous but, I swear it _rippled_. The waves weren’t too big, but it looked like the reflection was distorting under his hand, like when you drop a stone into a pond.

I think I almost screamed, and in that instant Jaehwan dropped his hand and his reflected gaze snapped up to meet mine in the mirror. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. Something kept my eyes magnetized to his. And then… he smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile or a joking smile, like the kind Jaehwan usually gives. It was just _wrong_. And when I finally managed to break its gaze and looked to Jaehwan, actual Jaehwan and not his reflection, he wasn’t smiling. But his reflection still was.

Before I could say anything, the others returned with the food, laughing and shoving each other. When I turned back to Jaehwan, both he and his reflection were back to normal. We ate quickly and went back to practicing, and nothing else weird happened that day. I still wasn’t sure what to think about what I saw. I must have thought I was more tired than expected and I was too embarrassed to share what had happened with any of my other band mates. I was sure Wonsik or Hongbin would just make fun of me.

The following day we were allowed back into our normal studio. I was grateful. And for the next few days, everything was fine. I managed to forget most of that weird encounter and continue our normal schedules. Jaehwan didn’t act any weirder. Then something changed.

One evening as I was getting some food out of the fridge, I saw Jaehwan walk past me. He was dressed like he was going out for the evening, though I couldn’t recall him saying he had any plans with friends or anything. I asked him where he was going, and he just said he had someone to meet. I told him to text us when he was going to be home. He just nodded and left. He had an odd expression that evening, but I didn’t think too hard about it.

He returned about two hours later. I mentioned that it was a pretty short visit, and he just smiled. It was that same smile I saw before in the mirror. It felt like a hole had opened up in the pit of my stomach when I saw it. It still wasn’t right.

‘He couldn’t stay for long,’ was what Jaehwan said. I think I asked who ‘he’ was, but Jaehwan just shook his head in response.

Now, this is the point where you all probably start thinking I’m crazy and have me committed. Honestly, I’m tempted to sign up for therapy or whatever myself. But… whatever came back that night wasn’t Jaehwan.

At first I thought it might be just me being paranoid, but then Wonsik brought it up too. When he mentioned it, I was so happy that someone else had noticed. That it wasn’t just me. And the others agreed as well. Jaehwan didn’t look different, not really, but something was just _off_. I think it was Hyuk who said it was like ‘Jaehwan, but a little to the left’.

There’s another detail I’ll mention. Hongbin was the one who noticed, but I didn’t really believe him at first. This theory was a little too out there for me. Hongbin said that ever since Jaehwan had returned he was doing things… flipped. He parted his hair to the opposite side, slept on the other side of the bed, etcetera. Doesn’t that just sound ridiculous? Can you blame me for not wanting to entertain that idea?

But then, I noticed something. Jaehwan’s right handed, always has been. This isn’t really surprising, most of the population is. It’s not like I watch Jaehwan a lot, but you just notice these things when you live and work with someone for so long. But after he came back that night, he started doing a lot of things with his left hand. Holding his microphone, using chopsticks, opening doors… all that kind of stuff. That was enough to get me worried. The thought of confronting him about it though... I just can't get that terrifying smile out of my mind.

I’m still not sure what’s wrong with him. Maybe he’s trying something new or doing some kind of training. There’s probably a reasonable explanation for it all. Anyway, I just wanted to say this out loud. I’m not sure if you’ll investigate him or whatever, but I don’t really want that. I’m probably just being paranoid, but…he seems to be watching me a lot more lately.”

**[End Statement]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist]**

This statement has a lot of things that are hard to verify. VIXX has continued their promotions in the years since this statement was made, and there appears to be no conflict in the group, though it is doubtful how much you can tell of someone’s true personality when watching them on broadcast. Other details of the case are… dubious at best.

I had Donghun follow up on the studio Mr. Jung mentioned. Apparently there is a dance studio at the address he provided, but it’s been abandoned for years. As far as Byeongkwan could find in his own investigation, there are no companies that currently have a trainee or idol with the name Choi Jongho under their label.

Yuchan watched the fancams and other broadcasting footage from the time period around when the statement was made. He did find that Lee Jaehwan had changed his hairstyle like Mr. Jung mentioned, but that could be because of the promotional period.

When we reached out to Mr. Jung Taekwoon for a follow up statement, he appeared confused and said he didn’t remember making a statement in the first place. Mr. Lee Jaehwan declined to make a response as well. As far as I’m concerned, this is a dead end and no more resources should be wasted trying to sort out this… flipped behavior.

Ah, one more thing. Yuchan has insisted that I include that two days after Mr. Jung Taekwoon made his statement, his own hairstyle changed to the opposite side. I doubt this has much relevance.

**[End Recording]**


	2. New Recruit

**[Recording begins. Case number 0180812. Statement from Mark Lee regarding a bizarre communication between his group and an unknown entity. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“Oh, are we starting now? Should I introduce myself? Uh hi, my name is Mark Lee. I’m a lead rapper for a group called NCT. Have you heard of us? Oh, uh, well that’s okay. We’re pretty new. I mean, not super new, but new enough. I guess I’ll explain a little bit about us so the story will make more sense.

We’re a new idol group under SM entertainment, you know, Red Velvet, EXO, SHINee, all that stuff. We debuted a couple years ago. One of the things that makes our group unique is that we’re always expanding. Our manager says that means that new members can be added to the group at any time, and believe me we have a _lot_ of new members. I think there are twenty one or so of us now? It’s hard for even me to keep up.

Anyway, I think this happened about half a year ago. All of the footage was deleted anyway so I guess it’s fine to talk about it now. It’s not like you guys will go spreading this recording around, right?

So we have a lot of social media accounts, obviously. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, vLive, all of that. We’re constantly uploading videos, at least our team is, and it seems like we’re always on camera. I had to turn off my own notifications for a lot of our accounts, otherwise it would be blowing up my phone constantly. I think most of the others do the same.

However, a notification did get through one day. It really shocked me, man. I thought maybe I’d forgotten to switch off one of my settings, but the notification said that it was just a new video posting. I’ll admit, I was curious. Maybe there was some kind of special feature on YouTube where a video could override the notifications? I don’t really know what I was thinking, but I opened the video anyway.

It was pretty simple, from what I can remember. It was a teaser video, you know, like how groups can have thirty second or so teasers for comebacks? Only, it was a teaser for a new member joining our group. We’ve done this in the past, so that wasn’t really surprising. It even looked like a professional video! There were, like, a lot of quick cuts and kinda confusing imagery interspersed with closeups of some guy’s features. The imagery was a little disturbing now that I think about it… I’m pretty sure there were a lot of shots of dark rooms or hallways, but I’d just assumed it was a more dark concept.

The new member’s name was… I don’t really remember. Mingi, I think? I’m not sure, which is the weird part. You’d think I would recall that one detail, but there’s a lot of stuff I’m forgetting about that video.

After that I went to go ask Taeyong, he’s the group leader, about it all. I thought that I might have missed some announcement or update from our manager about a new trainee or something, but he seemed just as confused as I was. I asked some of the other members, but no one knew who this guy was. It was like he’d just materialized out of nowhere one day. I’ve heard of trainees being fast tracked for debut, but this was insane. Not even our company’s trainees seemed to know who we were talking about.

Taeyong was the one who finally asked our manager what was going on, but he just acted confused when we asked him. Apparently no one knew who had posted the video, and they thought our account had been hacked or something and someone had uploaded it.

Accounts getting hacked isn’t super rare for idol groups, you know? Occasionally it’ll happen, but this was definitely the most elaborate hack I’d ever seen. Usually groups who get hacked will either have content deleted, or their video descriptions changed or something. Never a whole teaser trailer upload. It was freaky.

I think we all tried to write it off after that. We assumed management would take care of it, and Donghyuck made some jokes about how someone must just really want to join NCT and that was that. Even though this was pretty weird, none of us thought it might be supernatural at first. Just some crazy fan.

The video got taken down two hours after it was posted, and we thought it was all over and done with. I didn’t notice it then, but when it got deleted it was totally gone from the Internet. That just doesn’t happen. You know how people say ‘once it’s on the Internet, it’s out there forever’? This was like the one case where that didn’t happen. Usually if a video gets deleted off our channel our fans will reupload it, but that didn’t happen. In fact, there was no discussion from our fans about the teaser. It’s like we were the only ones who saw it.

Then we started getting messages. 

See, we have a group chat. Usually it’s to discuss scheduling, send memes, all that kind of stuff. Two days after the weird trailer an unknown number joined our group chat. I would try and show you the messages, but I don’t have them anymore. I’ll get to that.

Anyway, I think the first message we got was something like “Hi, I’m Mingi! I look forward to meeting all of you!” or something freaky like that. Of course, some of the younger kids flipped out. It’s scary enough when a fan or stalker finds one member’s number, let alone makes it into your group chat. I think I heard Taeyong and Johnny talking about getting us all new numbers and Taeil was already on the phone with our manager.

The messages didn’t stop there though.

_‘I love all of your music.’_

_‘I can’t wait to see the dorms.’ _

And this was the scariest one: _‘I’ll be there in a week’_

Wouldn’t that freak you out, man? Our manager increased our security detail and there were people trying to track down the number. It must have been re-routed or something, I’m really not that great with all the technical terms, but they couldn’t trace the source. Taeyong tried to kick the number out of the group chat, but every time he did it would just come back. We were all a little terrified at that point.

After a week of random messages from the number, they suddenly stopped. The guy, Mingi or whoever or _whatever_ was messaging us, finally left the chat. We were all relieved at first. And then Renjun was the one who brought up that the guy had said he’d be showing up in person in a week. And then we all freaked out again. 

I gotta give it to Taeyong and the older members, they tried to keep us calm. But it was too much for them to handle. It didn’t help that they were scared themselves. I heard Doyoung talking to Jaehyun about it, and they were both at a loss for what to do.

Now, we still had no reason to believe this was supernatural. We thought maybe it was some fan who was going to try and… I don’t know. Kidnap us? Poison us? We weren’t sure. All the younger members were getting kind of jumpy, and I couldn’t blame them. I think it was Johnny who suggested we all go places in at least groups of three just to be safe.

Anyway we were all in the dorm that evening, and everyone’s nerves were on edge. I remember Chenle screamed when the microwave went off, but no one laughed at him. I swear, you could cut the tension with a knife. And then there was a knock on the door.

We weren’t expecting anyone, and our manager would usually text us first if he needed to come over. Jaehyun got up to answer the door, but Taeyong shook his head at him. I think the rest of us were too scared to get up and answer it, or even look through the peep hole. There wasn’t any sound for a few minutes. Then the knocking came again, harder. Like whoever was there was trying to beat down the door.

Chenle and Jisung tried to duck back down behind the couch so they weren’t visible from the entryway. I actually wanted to do the same. I…I don’t think I scare too easily. I mean, I ham up a lot of my reactions for shows and things, but I don’t think I’m very paranoid. But this… it felt like something very terrible was just outside of our dorm. I haven’t felt dread like that in my whole life, I don’t think.

The knocking stopped again. It didn’t come back. And then everyone’s phone started ringing at the same time. I think someone screamed. Maybe it was me. It was that unknown number from our group chat. I remember I threw my phone away from me and it landed on the couch. Yuta was less lucky, and he just dropped his on the ground and cracked his screen. 

Then everything just turned off. The lights, the fans, just… everything. It was totally quiet. This darkness was somehow different from every other time I’ve experienced it. It was like the darkness swallowed up not just light, but heat and sound. I couldn’t do anything but draw in panicked breaths and wonder what was going on.

Our phones went off again, the sudden light and sound startling everyone in the room. We all had a text in our group chat. When I went to pick up my phone, it felt like it was five times heavier than usual. I…I didn’t want to look at the screen, but something compelled me to look at it.

_“I’m here now! :)”_

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry, even though it’s embarrassing to admit that. I wanted to do _something_, anything! But it was like all the sound just died in my throat, and my eyes throbbed as if I had a headache but there were no tears. I sat in that darkness for another ten minutes, looking in the direction of the door. At least, I’m pretty sure it was in that direction. After a while, I wasn’t really sure where I was looking. It was like being thrown into the middle of the ocean and not know which way was up or down.

I don’t know when the darkness seemed to retreat and left us with… normal darkness? But at some point we realized we could all move and speak and _breathe_ again. I think one of the younger members started crying. We all sat there for another thirty minutes, no one daring to get up and try the light switch for a long time.

Eventually it was Yuta who got up to move toward the lights. When he flipped it, all the lights came back on like normal. The fans turned back on too. It was like the last forty horrifying minutes had been some terrible dream that we were all waking up from. That night we all slept in the common area. Everyone was too scared to split back up and go back to our own rooms.

And… that was it. After that there were no more weird messages or videos or calls. We couldn’t find the number. The messages from whatever it was deleted themselves off of our phones, so we couldn’t show anyone. I know, why would you have any reason to believe me then? Do you think I’m making this up? I wish I was.

I…I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t know if there's and explanation you guys have, or if you’ve seen something like this before or… Just… just can you tell me I’m not crazy? Can you say that I shouldn’t worry about this? I don’t like this feeling that something’s here and watching me or my friends. I just… want to feel safe again.

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist]**

Well, as far as I’m concerned, this statement is completely unsubstantiated. There’s no evidence of this “Mingi” that could be provided. There are countless people named Mingi, and we simply don’t have the time and resources to investigate all of them. And, as Mr. Lee mentioned, there is no record of the videos posted to NCT’s various social media accounts.

I had Yuchan follow up with Mr. Lee, and he had nothing to add to his statement. Apparently he still gets the feeling of being watched sometimes, but much of the group has relaxed as nothing has come of the alleged texts. None of the other group members had anything to add to his statement.

There was one thing of note. Sehyoon called the group’s electricity provider to try and learn more about this supposed blackout. Apparently the blackout had been recorded at the apartment on the night in question, though the power was restored within the hour and it was written down as a power surge.Though this account is unsettling, I doubt it points to anything truly supernatural.

**[End Recording]**


	3. Chain Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've listened to The Magnus Archives, you probably know that the series has its fair share of graphic descriptions, body horror, and death. I will not be including many of these more graphic subjects in this fic, and if there is any possibly triggering content in a chapter I will include warnings in the beginning notes. Please let me know if you would like any tags added on any of the chapters now or in the future, and I can include them. Thanks!

**[Recording begins. Case number 0160523. Statement from Moon Bin regarding his…transportation to an alternate dimension. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“I… I think I might have killed someone. Not like that! I swear I didn’t mean to! They might still be alive, actually. Maybe… God, I hope they are. It’s not like I planned to hurt anyone else, you have to believe me! I’ll start from the beginning, hopefully it’ll all make sense. Just… please don’t think I’m a bad person. I swear I’m not.

This all started a little after our debut as an idol group. We were… fairly well known rookies. I think. A lot of people seemed to like us, which was honestly a little shocking. Our concept was very… cute? I’m not sure how else to describe it. But I’m getting off topic.

Anyway we were just starting out, which meant we could go out without worrying about anyone monitoring or following us. Honestly, I kind of miss those days. Back then Eunwoo, er, Lee Dongmin and I would often run out to the convenience store on the corner to get snacks after practice for us and the rest of the group. JinJin, our leader Park Jinwoo, would usually turn a blind eye. I think he felt bad for Sanha. The kid seemed to never get enough food with how fast he was growing.

That day, Dongmin asked if I would join him in going to some speed dating event that weekend. Don’t get me wrong! We weren’t going to find a date, god no. He said there was some kind of raffle prize at the end of the event that included a gift card to a local restaurant. Sanha’s birthday was coming up at the time, and we just wanted to take the kid out to a nice dinner that we usually wouldn’t be able to afford. Dongmin thought that if we both went, we could double our chances. Of course, I agreed.

Despite the fact that we weren’t super well known, we still would’ve got strung up by our company if someone spotted us there, so we scoped out the place early and went in disguise. Honestly, just wearing no makeup kind of works as a disguise. You’ll see people walk by you and they’ll do a double take like ‘Was that…? Nah’ and continue walking. Granted, it was a little harder for Dongmin because he’s so, uh, recognizable.

When we got there, it was pretty easy to register under fake names and junk e-mail accounts so it couldn’t be tracked back to our group. We got the raffle tickets up front, so everything was pretty smooth sailing at first, and we just had to wait out the event. It was only scheduled for about an hour and a half. We were both feeling pretty confident that it wouldn’t be too painful, and I was already thinking about how happy a good dinner would make Sanha.

All in all, the dates weren’t too hard to endure. We rotated partners every time the organizers would ring a bell, and we had a card to make notes on each date. I saw a lot of girls marking down Dongmin’s name, which I was planning on teasing him about later. I probably would have if it wasn’t for the… well, I’m getting to that.

About halfway through the event I was preparing to switch yet again, I was already getting tired of standing up and moving, when suddenly this guy slid into the seat across from me. Now the event was set up so that they always paired up boys with girls, so this was new. I looked around, wondering if anyone had noticed, but no one made any comment. I guess I just shrugged it off.

I asked him for his name. He said it was Kim Hongjoong. He was friendly enough, all smiles and harmless questions at first. He was the first person I admitted to that I was only there for the raffle at the end. He laughed when I said that and told me he wasn’t interested in the dating event either. That led me to ask why he was even bothering with this then.

He looked amused at that and said he’d been waiting all night for someone to ask that question. I…regret asking now. I wonder if that’s what made me a target in the first place. If I could go back I’d, well, I’d probably jump over the table and run back to the dorms. But it’s too late for that now.

Hongjoong told me he was there to give advice. I asked if he meant give advice on dating. He laughed again. He said no, and then said he wanted to give advice on how to get back. ‘Get back from what?’ I asked. 

He said, ‘You’ll see’. He suddenly grabbed me by the shoulder. His grip was a lot stronger than I expected. Almost unrealistically strong for his appearance. He looked me directly in the eyes. ‘Remember how you entered, and you can leave,’ he said. 

And then the bell dinged and he released my shoulder, got up and walked away. He didn’t move onto the next table, and instead walked right out the front doors. No one stopped him. No one even seemed to notice. I tried to shake it off, but his words kept circling in my mind. I was probably a pretty terrible date for the rest of the night.

Oh right, we actually did win the raffle. Dongmin had the winning ticket and there were no objections from the other participants, obviously. I think a few of the girls were trying to sneak photos, but it was a no photography event so luckily the organizers stopped them. I didn't even want to think about what might have happened if they posted them and someone recognized us. Though, that seems like a pretty trivial thing to be afraid of in retrospect.

Anyway, Dongmin was in such high spirits after winning that he wanted to swing by the convenience store and get snacks on the way back. I tried to be enthusiastic, but my meeting with that guy was just really making it hard for me to think about anything else. I told Dongmin I’d wait outside while he bought stuff, and he assured me it wouldn’t take too long. I think that was my mistake.

Near the shop is this alley with a big stone archway over the entrance. There’s nothing special about this alley, just a couple of dumpsters for the convenience store and the office building next to it. I’ve probably stared down it a million times when we walked by it. Sure, it’s a little more threatening at night, but it does have a street lamp that keeps it from falling too far into horror movie territory.

That night I heard some noises from one of the dumpsters. I think it sounded like a cat maybe, but a little off. I thought maybe a kitten had gotten trapped under one of the pieces of trash and I was squinting into the archway to try and see it, when suddenly I felt someone shove me through the entrance to the alley.

I have pretty good balance so I didn’t fall over, but when I turned back around I didn’t see anyone behind me. They must have run off after shoving me. I might have muttered something rude, but I went back to looking at the dumpster, maybe to see if I could find that cat, but everything was just… different. And wrong.

The dumpster was still there, but it was old and rusted, much more so than it had looked just seconds ago. It looked like it had been sitting in one spot for years and years with no maintenance. I couldn’t even see what the original color had been under all that rust.

And then another thought occurred to me. It was daytime. It had been just after ten when we left the dating event and already pitch dark, but now the sun was shining overhead. I could feel it on my skin. I pinched myself to confirm it was real and I wasn’t just… dreaming? Hallucinating? Having a bad trip without taking drugs somehow?

But it was real. I swear it was. I looked around. The alley was there, but the buildings were old and crumbling. Chunks of concrete were ripped away, exposing rusted beams. The convenience store had collapsed in on itself. Even beneath my feet the concrete was torn up with patches of dry, dusty earth showing through. The back of the alley was gone, leading into a wasteland.

I walked to the end of it just to see, just to _make sure_. Stupid. The other side was worse. All the buildings were there, but completely fallen into disrepair. Everything looked abandoned. I couldn’t see a single person, despite there still being a fair amount of people out earlier. There… there was this skeleton. Just in the road. I thought at first it might be a prop or something? But when I got closer it looked just a little too real. I screamed and backed up so fast that I tripped over a piece of rubber tire. My scream echoed through the city. 

And then something moved. In the distance, I could see two figures approaching me, down the ruined road. They looked humanoid in that they had a head, two arms, and two legs. At first I did think they were human, and even called out to them. But as they got closer, I realized that I was mistaken. 

They were horrifying and misshapen. There was no skin or anything, and it looked like they were formed out of debris or trash. Just a grotesque imitation of what a human might be, reconstructed from the destruction around them. My stomach lurched when I got a clearer look. They were still walking toward me. Unhurried, but somehow faster than the average human pace.

It was with that cold feeling in my stomach that I knew, I _knew_, that if they managed to catch me I would die. My legs, which had felt like lead blocks when I first saw them, suddenly unfroze. I ran away as fast as I could. As if on cue, they began to chase me. I ducked around building, vaulted over wreckage, tried to hide even. But they would always find me. They never got hungry. Never said anything. Never stopped trying to kill me.

I don’t know how long this went on. The sun didn’t set to let me keep track of time. I also never saw another human. Well, I never saw an alive human. It was like all of them had just been wiped out and the only beings left on earth was me and those…_things_.

And then, as my legs cramped and my lungs heaved and after what felt like days of running from those things, the words that other boy had told me earlier sprang back into my mind. If I remembered how I entered, I could leave.

I remembered that alley, that archway I had come through. I had to believe that was my exit back to my world where things made sense. I managed to throw my pursuers off for the briefest of moments and dashed back down that alleyway toward the arch, while I heard them gaining on me.

I made it through, and they did not follow.

I was back on the street outside the convenience store. It was night. I looked at the moon and nearly cried with relief. The door to the store jingled, and I flinched. Dongmin had just exited with a bag in one hand. He looked at me with concern.

‘Are you alright?’ he asked me. I wasn’t sure what to say. I think I nodded and we walked back to the dorms in silence. I… don’t remember much else of that night. The next day went as usual, and the next and the next. I began to wonder if what had happened was all a dream or some stress induced hallucination.

I comforted myself with those thoughts whenever I woke up screaming, sure that those twisted beings were still trying to capture me. Sure that humanity had been obliterated. But it never was.

A month later I was walking down the street toward the convenience store. I was on my own. It was dark out. As I continued down the street, I saw a man approaching me and my heart stopped. It was Kim Hongjoong. He smiled at me. He got close enough to put a hand on my shoulder like we were friends. His grip was still as strong as I remembered.

‘Glad to see you got back,’ he said. ‘Don’t you want to share the experience?’ Then he glanced behind himself. There was a girl a few steps in front of me. She was standing next to that very archway I’d been shoved through. Hongjoong patted me on the shoulder and walked away.

My feet began to move on their own, almost like I was possessed. I watched my right arm raise without my permission, yelling in my head to stop whatever I was doing. I knew what would happen if I pushed her through the archway. I knew what she would see. Had Hongjoong warned her as well before, or would she be left to flounder there forever or until those things caught her? I tried to tell her to run, but my mouth wouldn’t move.

I pushed her through the arch, and she disappeared. And all at once, I regained control of my body. I stumbled back, hoping she would emerge a second later like I had. I waited there for an hour. She didn’t come back. I turned and ran back to the dorm.

I don’t know what happened to her. I don't even know her name, and since she had her back to me I never saw her face. I want to believe she’s still alive and maybe she got out a different way but… I don’t know. Those things over there, I’m not sure if they’d let another person leave. I think they want us, all of us, dead.

God, I hope she’s alive.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist]**

“Let’s just say there’s really not a lot that can be verified other than yes, there is an archway next to the convenience store Mr. Moon Bin mentions in his statement. Byeongkwan tried to cross over into… whatever territory was described and, obviously, failed. He mentioned to me that he also made Sehyoon try and push him through it, with equally disappointing results. I told him to stop messing around on research missions.

Donghun did some investigating and found that a girl did go missing in the area at the time described though, a Ms. Choi Yoojung. According to police reports, she is still considered a missing person. Though this is a very detailed story, I-“

“Hey, Jun! Got those files you asked for! Oh, are you recording?”

“Yes, I am Yuchan, so if you would…?”

“Oh! Right, sorry. I’ll just… leave these here…”

“Alright, where was I? Ah, yes. Yuchan went to go get a follow up statement, but Mr. Moon Bin refused to give one. Mr. Lee Dongmin did confirm the speed dating event timeframe though, along with his group mates nervous attitude following it. 

There is no other evidence to back up the statement, and I would normally write it off, but I am far too familiar with the works of Kim Hongjoong. He’s a bit of a celebrity down at the Archives with how often his name pops up. I’m sure this won’t be the last of him we see in these statements.”

**[End Recoding]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those who have listened to TMA probably know what Entities the already included members of ATEEZ follow, but feel free to guess which Entities the other members will represent!


	4. Relapse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I said it wouldn't be getting gross... yeah haha me too...
> 
> Content Warnings: Hospitals, illness, temporary character death

**[Recording begins]**

“Well there’s some good news at the Archives, a sentiment which is becoming increasingly rare. The other day I sent Byeongkwan to look through our Artifact storage and he came across a box of tapes from my predecessor and former Head Archivist, Mr. Lee Taemin. The current head of the Magnus Institute, Kim Junmyeon, has given me permission to listen through them. Maybe I can make sense of why my predecessor left his position so suddenly. In any case, I’ll try and back them up in the future.”

“Jun!”

“Yuchan?”

“How tall are you?”

“…Dare I ask why you need that information?”

“Byeongkwan, Sehyoon and I were trying to reach some papers on the top shelf of the cabinet, and we thought it’d be easier if we climbed on each others’ shoulders.”

“Absolutely Not. There’s a step ladder in the janitor’s closet, go get that instead.”

“Oh sweet, thanks!”

[_sound of a door closing_]

“…I’m losing years as we speak. Let’s start today’s statement before I inevitably have to drive my assistants to the hospital.”

**[Case number 0173006. Statement from Boo Seungkwan regarding his recovery at a local hospital. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

I’m not sure if what happened to me was very _lucky_ or very _unlucky_. My group mates say it was good that I got out of the hospital in time. The doctors said it was a miracle. But to me it feels more like a curse if I’m being honest. I’m not used to feeling so afraid. I’m usually the funny guy, you know? And people don’t expect the funny ones to ever be scared. They’re supposed to face everything with a confident smile or a well-timed joke but I think I’ve run out of those, at least in this case.

It started at the hospital, as you might expect. I’m sure you’ve heard of the one I’m referring to, it’s pretty infamous by now. I’d gone there because I was sick. I think it was just the flu or something brought on by exhaustion. The problem with being in a big group like Seventeen is that if one person gets sick, everyone gets sick. Because of this, our manager takes illness very seriously. Honestly, if anyone so much as coughs in his presence he’ll send us packing to the ER. When I collapsed during dance practice and twisted my ankle in the process, I knew where I’d be going.

Fortunately my diagnosis was pretty mild with it only being the common cold, and they only wanted to keep me a little while after for observation. Apparently there was a mutated strain or virus or something in the area, and they just wanted to make sure I’d recover well and not contract whatever was going around. I’ll admit that a lot of the terms they used started running together in my head, but none of the doctors seemed particularly worried and it appeared to be more of a formality than anything else.

No getting around it, staying in a hospital is _boring_. You just sit in bed all day and they only have this tiny little television to entertain you. There’s not much to watch during the day either, unless you like re-runs, or gameshows, or re-runs of gameshows. The bed next to mine was empty for most of the day, so I didn’t have anyone to really talk to either. Since I was in pretty good condition, they at least let me practice walking around on crutches for a while so I could get used to them. If I hadn’t had that, I might have gone out of my mind.

My first evening there, after dinner which was some horrid tray of tasteless food, someone was brought into my room and put on the other bed. It looked… urgent. He was young, around my age. He was unconscious and also deathly pale from the few glimpses I caught of him. There were doctors and nurses bustling around him, frantically murmuring to each other. They all had surgical masks on. I remember one of the nurses handed me one to put on as well. I did, worrying that the other boy might have had an infectious disease of some kind.

I just managed to get a quick look at the clipboard on the other’s bedframe. Choi San. I don’t know why I even bothered looking, it wasn’t like I recognized the name. He was hooked up to a number of tubes and wires leading into and out of his arms, chest, mouth, everything. It looked like something out of a sc-fi novel or the beginning of a zombie apocalypse movie. There was a heart rate monitor beeping steadily in the background. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why he was brought into my room specifically. His illness was definitely a lot more severe than mine. You’d think they would’ve taken him to some… serious disease ward or something, right? Do hospitals have those?

Anyway, after an hour, the doctors and nurses all looked at each other, straightened up as if they were trying out some synchronized performance routine, and marched out of the room in a quiet single file line. They walked in perfect time to the tempo of the heartrate monitor. Honestly, even my group probably wasn't as in sync as them at that moment. I didn’t know what to say, I was so confused by the sudden shift in their demeanor. The last nurse shut the door behind the procession, and suddenly I was alone in the room with this boy. The only sound was that beeping.

I sat there for a while. I don’t know how long. Maybe a couple minutes, maybe an hour. Time passes oddly in hospitals, and I’m pretty sure the clock they had mounted on the wall was broken since the second hand just kept twitching but never moving forward. Eventually, I had the strangest desire to go up and get a closer look. To just see what was wrong with him. I don’t have any morbid fascinations, at least I don’t think so. If any other members ever got injured or sick, I’m usually the first to look the other way. But this was different somehow.

He was a lot skinnier than I thought he would be, like his skin was just kind of draped over his bones. At least, from what skin he had that was clear. A good amount of him was covered in this painful looking red rash or something and his veins were visible underneath in a grim black color. It was disgusting, but his face was even worse. The rash ran all up his neck and cheeks, and his eyes, though closed, were tearing up with a black slime or bile. I think I was lucky there was a tube down his throat so I didn’t really get a look inside his mouth. Something… something inside me was telling me to touch him.

I didn’t want to. I _really_ didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure what he had, and even after looking at his clipboard later I was at a loss, but I was certain that touching him would get me sick, and sick in a way I wouldn’t recover from. I backed away from him, my horror struggling with my fascination. As soon as I took that first step back, he flatlined. All the monitors he’d been hooked up to started going crazy as the levels dropped.

I snapped out of whatever trance I’d been in and scrambled back onto my bed, knowing that some nurses would probably come running soon. But they didn’t. That boy was in the room for at least two hours, machines blaring in warning, before someone came for him. That whole time I just had to sit there, watching, as more black bile oozed out of him. It felt like I couldn’t blink, I was so worried that the moment I took my eyes off him, he’d get up and try to touch me or cough some of that tar-like substance into the air.

When they finally came in, laid a sheet over his body and wheeled him out, I was relieved. I suddenly felt terrible for thinking that way when he’d just died, but I was just glad that he wasn’t in the room any longer. It felt like I could take my face mask off and breathe again. So I did. I didn’t sleep well that night, unsurprisingly. That boy came back to haunt my dreams, skin festering and arm outstretched as if asking me to join him in his terminal state. All the while, I was surrounded by a tide of steadily rising black slime trying to seep through my clothes and into my skin.

The sun rose the next day, and everything was normal. I took a long shower that morning and scrubbed my skin until it started to turn red. I asked one of the nurses who brought me lunch what had happened to the other boy from the night before, and she acted confused. She said no one had been brought into the room the previous night. I told her it was a boy with a horrible rash and he’d died. She reiterated that no one had been brought in and then asked me if I was feeling okay, if I’d had any hallucinations. I dropped the subject. The last thing I wanted was to stay in that hospital any longer than I had to.

That evening, at what I know was the exact same time after dinner, a gurney was rushed into my room and a body was lifted onto the bed next to mine. From what I could see at first, it looked like someone who had the same condition as the boy from earlier. And then I got a better view. It was the same boy. I know it was. The same doctors and nurses were bustling around him. He had the same same tubes poking out of him and the same cursed heart rate monitor forever beeping behind him.

And much like the night prior, after a short time of medical staff fussing over his body, they all left in a single file line as if on cue. And I was alone with him again. I once again got up and went over to look. Everything was exactly as I remembered. I checked his papers and those were also identical though the date was changed, assuring me that this was the second day in the row that it had happened. And then, exactly on time, he flatlined again.

I took my time getting back into bed that time, knowing that no staff would be showing up anytime soon. I wondered who he was, why he was here again, _how _he was here again. Did he have family? Maybe a twin by the exact same name by chance? But I knew that wasn’t it. I watched quietly as he was wheeled out later, wondering if he’d stay dead now and then knowing in my gut that wouldn’t be the case.

It happened again the next day. And the day after. I was only in the hospital for a week, but it was a full week of watching this same boy die of the same unnamed disease again and again and again. He was never less horrible to look at. If anything, the rash seemed to become slightly more intense and dark red as the week went on, and the black liquid dripped out faster and thicker.

On my last night at the hospital I was ready to crawl out the window, despite me being on the fifth floor. He came in, as per usual. The doctors left, as per usual. But something was different this time, I could feel it.

Without warning, right at the second when he usually flatlined, he sat up. He opened his eyes and looked straight at me. His eyes were a milky white color and more of that bile dripped from the edges. The tube in his mouth retracted like a huge snake until it landed on the floor with a wet sounding plop, spilling tar-like ooze everywhere. I screamed and jerked backwards. He just looked at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to speak to him. It took me a long moment to find my voice.

‘Who are you?’ I asked.

He seemed disappointed. ‘You already know.’ And I did. His papers all read Choi San.

‘How do you keep coming back?’

He smiled, and I watched more bile drip past his lips. ‘I’m sick and I need help. That’s why I’m still here. I’ll be here until I recover.’

‘What are you sick with?’ I asked.

‘Everything,’ he said. He tilted his head suddenly, as if hearing a voice I couldn’t, and gave me a final nod. ‘I’ll miss you tomorrow,’ he said. And then his eyes rolled up and he fell backwards on the bed, flatlining once again. I stared, wide-eyed, at his body until the nurse came to retrieve him. They didn’t clean the black ooze off of the floor. When I checked out the next day I kept looking around wildly, so certain I would see him staring at me again from some corner of the hospital. I didn’t.

The next week the virus broke out at the facility, as I’m sure you know. The news called it a mutated strain of bird flu or something like that, but I know it was him and whatever he was sick with. I had to go through a dozen checkups to verify I wasn’t a carrier afterwards, but they all came back clean.

I don’t know why I was spared the horror of that disease. Maybe he liked me in some odd way. Maybe he was grateful that I was there on those days so he didn’t die alone. Maybe I’m just lucky.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist]**

“It’s rare we get a case from a witness to an event as large as the virus outbreak in Seoul. It was all over the news for a while before a cure was discovered. I remember going to the doctor to get my own vaccination. Quite the hysteria surrounding it.

I’m not quite sure how Yuchan managed to get his hands on hospital records for the time frame, but he did. Mr. Boo Seungkwan was a patient at the hospital the week before the outbreak but there is no record of a Choi San anywhere in the building at the time, much less in the same room. That said, the outbreak is recorded to have begun in the hospital and ward that Mr. Boo Seungkwan was staying in. We were unable to contact any of the other patients who were staying in the ward at that time as many are deceased or unresponsive.

It is impossible for us to verify much more given how tightly medical procedures from the time of the outbreak were sealed, and media releases were more sensational than factual. Since a cure has been developed in the time since, I doubt there’s much need for follow up anyway. I will be more diligent about getting my flu shot this year though…”

**[End Recording]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> San: Wow, can a guy please catch a break?!


	5. Special Delivery

**[Recording begins]**

“Upon reviewing the tapes from my predecessor, I found that it was too much to hope that those might have _some_ semblance of organization. All of the tapes are out of order and Taemin’s notes range from the bizarre to the downright nonsensical. Nevertheless, I will try and record them as accurately as possible. Honestly, it’s a miracle that any of these tapes even play. From what Byeongkwan tells me, they were found dangerously close to a leaking pipe. I will begin with what appears to be one of the more recent tapes.”

**[Case number 0050112. Statement from Amber Liu regarding an odd delivery to an address she was living at. Recording created by Lee Taemin, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“This all happened a long time ago. I don’t even know if the delivery service is in operation. I certainly haven’t been back to check, ha! You couldn’t pay me enough to go back there. I wonder if they ever filled in that sinkhole. I wonder if they ever found… Let me start over.

My name is Amber Liu. A while ago, I won’t say how long if you don’t mind, I lived in a house with on of my friends temporarily. It wasn’t for very long, I was just in between places. During this particular week said friend was out of town for a wedding. I told her not to worry. I said that me and JackJack, that’s my dog, would watch the place. It was really no big deal, I’m an adult after all.

The first day was pretty boring. I was mostly just filming for my YouTube channel, writing down ideas for future videos and texting my friends. Pretty normal stuff. JackJack was barking a little more than usual, but I thought he was just a little antsy from being in an unfamiliar place. He probably just had too much energy, right? I played with him a bit before bed. I thought he’d be less loud if he was tired, and I was right. I probably should’ve thought something was up. Don’t animals have a sixth sense for this stuff or something?

The next day I woke up and went out to get the paper. I didn’t even bother dressing up, just went out in my pajamas. It wasn’t like there were any fans around to take pictures, and I wasn’t really planning on leaving the house that day anyway. Honestly I wouldn’t have gone outside normally, but I thought it’d be rude of me as the guest to let newspapers or mail pile up in the driveway.

When I went out that day there was this package. It was just sitting at the end of the driveway. It was rectangular, and pretty big too. Probably the size of a coffee table or something. I didn’t order anything myself, and my friend hadn’t mentioned that she was expecting a package before she left, so I was confused. I left it sitting out there when I brought the paper in and immediately called my friend. She had no clue either and said she hadn’t ordered anything recently.

I went back out to check the package and saw that it had the wrong address on it, clearly a mis-delivery. I was actually relieved. I wasn’t going crazy. The address written on it wasn’t too far from the house– probably a ten minute drive or so– but I couldn’t make it myself. I didn’t have a car at the time, and when I tried to pick the package up I was already sweating after a few steps. The box felt a lot heavier than it looked.

At that moment, I heard the sky rumble overhead. It was odd. I didn’t recall there being rain in the forecast that day, but if the way the clouds were getting darker was any indication then I could safely say a sizable storm was on its way.

I looked at the package. I didn’t know what was inside, but I doubted it could be left out in the rain without taking damage. I was wavering back and forth about it, when I felt the first raindrops on my skin. In a spur of the moment decision, I lifted the package and managed to haul it into the house and shut the door behind me. Almost immediately afterward rain started pouring down. Had I been a second slower, both I and the box would’ve gotten drenched. I’d been proud of myself at the time. Now I wish I’d just left it there.

I left the package in the living room. JackJack sniffed it once and then started growling and barking at it. I scolded him, but he wouldn’t stop. Eventually I had to put him in another room. That was probably my second clue that something wasn’t right.

Now at a loss for what to do, I studied the package. I wasn’t going to open it, but I did look at the label more carefully. Aside from it not being addressed to the house, there was a name on the label for some company. ‘Buried Treasure’. I assumed that was either the company the product was from or the shipping company. I went to go look it up online.

The company did pop up as the top result after a quick search on Google, to my relief. I didn’t really look through the site, I just needed their phone number, but from what I could see they mainly just sold beauty products or like… that natural earth healing kinda stuff? Lots of mud masks and dirt or soil or whatever. Anyway, their phone number was listed right at the top, so I called them.

A guy answered the phone. He sounded pretty young. Probably some delivery boy or intern that they hired on. I told him about the situation and he apologized a few times. I actually felt bad for the kid. I got the sense he hadn’t been working there very long, you know? I understood that. I told him it was no problem and that I had the package inside my house just to keep it out of the rain. I made sure to mention that I hadn’t even opened it.

I asked him if he could come pick it up. He said that he could swing by and get it, but unfortunately the company’s one delivery van had just broken down and they wouldn’t be able to get it fixed until that weekend. He apologized again to me and asked if I could possibly hold the package just a little longer and he’d come by. He said he’d even pay me for my trouble if I promised not to tell his boss.

I made what was probably one of the dumbest decisions of my life and agreed. I just didn’t want the kid to get in trouble. It’s hard to have a terrible boss that is just waiting for you to slip up. And, I mean, it wasn’t like I was doing anything besides house sitting for the next few days. The kid was so relieved when I told him. He thanked me and promised he’d be by first thing Saturday. It was Tuesday. No big deal, right? I hung up thinking that was that. 

The package was still standing in the living room. It seemed oddly… imposing just in the middle of the floor, so I moved it to the corner. It wasn’t so bad when it was out of the way. After that, I just shuffled all my things to the dining room table and continued what I had been working on, writing notes for my show and answering e-mails from my company. 

Every now and then I glanced up to look at the box. I don’t know why. It never moved or anything, but my eyes just kept drifting to it. Around lunch time I let JackJack back into the living room. He didn’t bark at the box again, but he didn’t go near it either. In fact, he seemed to be avoiding the entire living room even though he usually jumped up to sleep in a certain spot on the sofa. This still didn’t raise any alarm bells with me yet.

The rest of the evening wasn’t noteworthy. I ordered a pizza for dinner that night and ate it while watching a movie on my laptop. Around ten I started getting ready for bed. It was about eleven by the time I was actually under the covers. I think was trying to work out my plans for the next day when I heard it.

It was a scratching noise, like nails on wood. I thought it was JackJack at first, scratching on my door, but it was a little too… heavy for that, and the door to my room was already open anyway. I got up and turned my light on. The noise was coming from the living room. I walked there, heart beating in my chest. I was trying to reason it out in my head. Maybe it was the wind. Or it really was JackJack and my half asleep brain had exaggerated it.

I flipped on the light in the living room, and as soon as I laid my eyes on the package the noises stopped. I don’t know why, but I felt _colder_ when I looked at the box. I started moving toward it like I was sleep walking. When I was right in front of it, every one of my instincts was yelling at me to stop. I wanted to open it. I don’t know where the compulsion came from, but some voice in the back of my head was telling me to open up the box.

There weren’t any sharp objects in the room, and that was probably what saved me. Since I couldn’t find anything, I managed to back away from it. All at once, it was like I really woke up. I stumbled back from the package feeling off-balance. My sudden impulse to see what was inside was gone. That box suddenly seemed a lot more sinister. I threw one of the blankets from the couch over it and ran back to the bedroom, shutting the door and locking it behind me. I didn’t hear any more sounds that night.

The next night was worse. The noises didn’t come during the day, but as soon as the sun started setting, they ramped back up again. At first it was more of a light tapping, like a branch on the window. Then there was a scratching noise, like fingers on a door. Or maybe the lid of a coffin. The scratching would get more intense, as if someone was trying desperately to get out. I was tempted to open the box just to see if there really was someone stuck in there. I knew it was ridiculous, but…

On Thursday there was more. After an hour of the scratching, there was a banging noise. Like knocking or pounding on a piece of wood despite the box itself being plain cardboard. The first time I heard it I nearly jumped out of my skin. I spent all night sitting on the couch, unable to sleep as I stared at this box for hours and hours. At this point, JackJack wasn’t even leaving his bed in the laundry room. He was scared of the package, and so was I.

I know what you must be thinking. Why didn’t I just move the package to a closet or throw it back outside? I tried doing that, but when I shut it away there was this… rumbling noise from beneath my feet like the first tremors of an earthquake. It was low, but threatening somehow. Like a warning shot. I got the message and put the box back in my living room despite wanting to chuck it out a window. The tremors immediately stopped.

Friday brought the worst yet. I’d been counting down the hours starting Wednesday from the time until the boy said he would come to get the package. Now the noises even happened during the day. I couldn’t leave my house for long without a car, and I could only take JackJack out for so much time before he got tired and thirsty. As soon as I stepped back in the house, the noises would start up again.

Now a moaning sound was added, like it was trying to tick off boxes on Nightmare Noise Bingo. Luckily, I’d started taking my own safety measures on Thursday. All of the sharp objects in the house, scissors, boxcutters, knives, and the like I’d thrown into a safe my friend kept in the house. She’d used it for her passport and emergency funds, but all of that had gone with her on her trip, so the door had been left wide open. I’d locked it shut and been grateful that I didn’t know the combination. I was sure she’d be confused when she returned, but I honestly didn’t trust myself not to cut open the box anymore.

In my last few hours with the package, I felt like I was losing my mind. The moaning was starting to run together into one drawn out, haunting groan accompanied by a symphony of scratches and bangs. There were bumping noises too. So loud I thought the box might fall over, but it never so much as twitched.

The sun on Saturday rose far too slowly. The clock on the wall felt like it was mocking me. Like every second was stuck in syrup. Eventually though, the sun did appear and my ordeal was over. I think I jumped a mile in the air when I heard a knocking sound that _didn’t_ come from the box. But I was also relieved. Euphoric, even.

I ran to the door and flung it open. I must have looked terrifying, not having slept in days and half out of my mind. The boy in front of me was the same one I talked to on the phone, I thought, and it was confirmed when he opened his mouth. He was younger than me by quite a bit. He had a wide smile once he managed to collect himself after my sudden appearance. I saw a name sewn onto his shirt. Wooyoung.

‘I’m here for the package,’ Wooyoung said, almost like a question. He looked at his side and I noticed he had one of those box carrier things. He seemed surprised to see me and not just because I was looking pretty disheveled, now that I think about it.

‘Over here,’ I told him, letting him inside without a second thought. That was pretty stupid, me letting a stranger into a house that wasn't even mine, but I just wanted that thing gone. I pointed to the box, though I’m sure he didn’t need help seeing it. He shuffled the box onto the carrier and wheeled it back to the door. 

He stopped on the doorstep and turned back around to face me. I remembered he’d mentioned paying me, and I almost laughed in his face. At that moment I didn’t need any payment other than him getting that box as far away from me as possible.

‘About what we talked about on the phone-‘ he began

I waved him off. ‘It’s no problem,’ I said. ‘Just take it. Don’t get in trouble.’

Wooyoung nodded. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I’m surprised you didn’t open it.’

‘It wasn’t for me,’ I said, shuddering as I thought about my previous nights.

He gave me a long look at that. It felt like he was looking for something from me, but I wasn’t sure what. ‘No,’ he said after a minute, ‘I suppose not.’ And then he wheeled that cursed package out to his van. ‘Buried Treasure’ was stamped on the side of it. Though I’d struggled to lift the package and get it inside the house, the boy hefted it into the back like it was nothing before hoisting the carrier in as well. He gave me one final wave before climbing into his van and driving off. I never saw him or that van again, and I’m grateful every day for that.

A week after I’d moved into my new place, my friend called me. She told me that not far from her house a sinkhole had opened up, one large enough that it swallowed an entire house. The experts were all stumped, apparently, and there was no sign of the person who’d lived there. They were presumed dead.

It might have been a coincidence but… the place where the sinkhole opened was the same address that package was supposed to have been delivered to. I checked.

There’s something else. On the day I was moving out of my friend’s place, there was this package at the end of the driveway. It looked familiar. I knew it instantly. My friend hadn’t noticed, so I pushed it into someone else’s driveway and looked at the label. My name was on it this time. 

I had to do something, so I took out a sharpie from my bag and scribbled out my address. I wrote on the side of the box in huge black letters ‘Return to Sender’.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist, Lee Taemin]**

“It appears Ms. Amber Liu was very lucky, having survived a near encounter with The Buried. I haven’t heard of this Wooyoung before, but it’s likely he’s a very recently made avatar. I’d thought The Buried had restrained most of its activities to America, but clearly I was mistaken. If it _does_ have designs to move to Asia then… we have cause to be worried. I’ll have Minho do a follow up on this and see if he can track down this ‘Buried Treasure’ company or Wooyoung character. Since I cannot confirm the time frame, I have no idea how close followers might be now to completing their ritual.”

**[End note]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist, Park Junhee]**

“Well as you can probably see, I have absolutely no idea what the former Head Archivist was talking about. ‘The Buried’? I can only assume that it’s some sort of… American rock band I’ve never heard of, though that makes no sense in context. This ‘follower’ business as well. The notes in the file with this tape are, as one might assume, frustratingly vague. Either Taemin was abysmal at keeping records or there are more out there that I’m just missing. I’ll have to send Byeongkwan back down to the Artifact Storage again to see if he can find them.

In any case, I had Donghun do his own follow up on the case. There was a sinkhole that opened up at the address mentioned in this statement. Efforts to fill it back in have been futile, though it doesn’t appear to be threatening any of the surrounding houses structurally. Unsurprisingly, though, many have chosen to move out of that neighborhood in the years since.

Sehyoon could not find Ms. Amber Liu for a follow up statement. I hope that if we can recover my predecessor’s notes he will have done some follow up himself, although I might be shocked if it happens that he did. I’ll ask Yuchan to see if we have any more information on Taemin down here.”

**[End Recording]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooyoung: Unlike all of these other avatars... I have a job.


	6. On Break

**[Recording begins]**

“Unfortunately, Byeongkwan was unable to turn up any more tapes or notes from my predecessor, Lee Taemin. Though this is a bit of a setback, I’m sure we’ll eventually find some clue to their meaning as we continue organizing the Archives. Donghun has already turned up some interesting information, in fact.

Apparently the current head of the Magnus Institute, Kim Junmyeon, was once an Archival assistant. Junmyeon is notoriously tightlipped about his past, so this was quite a find for us. I wonder if he has heard any of these statements before or knows any more about what may have happened to the former Archivist.

Usually I’d ask but… this feels like a dangerous topic to me. I don’t know if we’re on close enough terms for me to pry. Maybe I should send Yuchan in my place. That boy seems to have almost supernatural charisma. If anyone can get answers, it’s him. Until then, I guess I’m stuck down here in the basement.

Not much down here though, unless you want to include old tapes and the spiders that have apparently made their home above the door frame. I personally am not inclined to.”

**[Case number 0150201. Statement from Min Yoongi concerning an odd experience he had over a vacation period. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist for The Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“Honestly, this all feels a little too out there for me. I mean, your Archives. It’s all very… dramatic. It makes me wonder what kind of look your organization’s architect was going for. Did they intend for this place to look like something out of a horror movie? I guess it’s fitting. I’m sure you don’t hear too many happy things around here.

But you don’t want to listen to me ramble, do you? You want a story. That’s okay, I have one. I barely believe it myself. The police certainly didn’t. Not even my friends did. That’s why I’m here, I guess. I’m sure this isn’t even the weirdest thing you’ve heard today.

It happened a week ago when our manager told us that our group was getting a vacation. A whole month, he said. We were ecstatic. I’m not really one for enthusiastic celebrations but Jimin and Taehyung, oh that’s Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung if you need their full names for your records, were both bouncing around the room. I think Hoseok, Jung Hoseok, was planning on going home as well, and he left to call his family as soon as our break was announced.

I asked my roommate Kim Seokjin, wow it’s weird to call all of them by their full names, what his plans were. He said he was going home and was probably going to sleep or play video games the whole time. I remember he did say that he might meet up with his friend Lee Jaehwan from VIXX, but he also mentioned that Jaehwan had been acting strange lately so he thought the other might be going through some personal issues.

The leader of our group, Kim Namjoon, also said he’d be leaving the dorms. His plan was to do some sightseeing. We travel a lot for concerts, but we rarely get to see much by ourselves. Even if we’re going to attractions, it’s usually for a variety show or some social media post. I have to say, it gets annoying to not be able to enjoy a place without a camera being shoved in your face. 

The three youngest were all returning to their own homes as well, which I was happy for. I think they’d been getting more homesick lately. I know Jungkook was missing his brother. They probably made plans to meet up at some point over the break, but I wasn’t really listening to them because at that moment I realized I was going to be alone at the dorms.

I was actually really excited for that. Living with seven other guys can be… overwhelming at times. Don’t get me wrong, the others are like family to me, but can’t I just want a little bit of alone time every now and then? At the time of our break I didn’t even have my own room. Having a month of no one there… well, I could do whatever I wanted. I could catch up on sleep, work on my own music, maybe read some books or just anything I felt like. This kind of opportunity is rare in such a fast paced and crowded industry.

I think I was actually smiling when the day came for the others to set off. They all had flights on the same day, so they left in three company cars. They waved and smiled at me as they loaded their suitcases into the trunks and piled into the cars. Jin actually had invited me to come visit him at some point, worried that I’d be lonely staying in by myself. I turned him down, assuring him that I’d be fine. I was an adult, after all. 

I wish I had taken him up on it. Then maybe…

Anyway, the first few days were exactly as I had imagined. I slept in every morning, ordered takeout whenever I was hungry, and spent a whole lot of time either reading or plugged into my laptop making music. A couple of days I went down to the studio to work on my stuff there. The studio was also pretty empty. Not many people were in the building and no one ever bothered me in my own room.

I think the most social interaction I got in that first week was when I went to the grocery store and made small talk with the cashier. Other than that there were a handful of messages from my manager, which I could handle through text or e-mail, or just paying the delivery guy for takeout whenever I ordered. Some people would probably say it was all dull. I know Jimin or Taehyung would. But to me, it was refreshing to have all this time and space to myself.

It started devolving halfway through my second week, about the midpoint of the whole break. I ordered takeout that night, because of course I did. I’ve never been the cook, that was always Jin, so I was slowly becoming more and more familiar with the delivery service. The restaurant probably knew my order by heart at this point. It’s a little embarrassing, but ordering takeout was partially what kept me on schedule and remembering what to eat. If I didn’t have an alarm set for when to order, I’d probably keep working through the whole evening without noticing.

My familiarity with this routine was why I noticed that the delivery guy was different that day. It was just a kid, really, probably fresh out of school and working a part-time job or something. He looked nervous when I opened the door that day, though I’m not sure why. Some people say I can come off intimidating at first. I don’t try to be. I felt bad for this kid. He was twitchy, like it was his first day on the job.

He read off my order and the price. I gave him the money and he handed over the food. I gave him a little bigger tip than I usually do since I felt bad for him. If you haven’t realized yet, I’m pretty introverted myself, and having a job where you have to interact with strangers all the time had to be stressful. He left with a very hastily muttered ‘thanks’ and then scurried back to the stairwell faster than I expected. I shrugged and returned to my solitude.

The next day, I ordered takeout again. I’d been promising myself that I’d cook at some point, but it was just so much easier to call for food. Unsurprisingly, this argument did not hold up when Jin and the others returned to find rotting food in the fridge, but I digress. I called a different restaurant from the previous night. I remember craving Chinese food. Not sure why.

The doorbell rang forty minutes later. I got up from my spot on the couch where I’d been watching… probably some drama or game show. Something mindless. I opened the door with my wallet already in my hand. When I looked up from the food, I realized it was the same kid delivering to me. I did a double take. He looked just as nervous as he had the previous night, and he seemed to wilt a little as I stared at him.

‘Do you have multiple jobs?’ I asked him.

He nodded, I think. Or at least he twitched his head, and I just decided to interpret that as a nod. ‘Need a few for money,’ he mumbled.

I knew what it was like to not have much money. ‘Oh, sorry,’ I said, which was kind of stupid in retrospect. The kid shrugged, not meeting my eyes. He read off the price and I paid him, tipping a little extra yet again. As soon as he handed over the food, he was gone without a word.

That night something happened. It wasn’t anything that really tipped me off at the time, but now it sticks out to me. When I went on social media that night, all of the apps had my friends listed as ‘Offline’. It was pretty late when I checked, so I thought nothing of it. I sent a few messages to my friends, ate dinner, and got ready for bed. When I checked my phone right before I went to sleep, I saw that no one had gotten back to me yet. It was fine. I knew they were probably busy with their families or vacations. Namjoon had even warned all of us that he might be hard to get ahold of while he was abroad. I just assumed they’d get back to me whenever they saw it.

When I woke up the next morning, there were still no messages. That was a little odd. Usually Jin, Jimin and Jungkook are pretty good about getting back to people in a timely manner. The others can be a bit harder to contact, but after years of dealing with time sensitive schedules, we were all pretty disciplined at replying. Maybe they were all taking this vacation time more seriously than I thought. 

There was no one online that morning either, which was definitely strange. At least some of my friends should be on by that time, but there was nothing. I tried to put it out of my mind. I went about my daily routine, and eventually the weirdness faded. I should have put more effort into staying connected. I should have tried messaging again or _something._

I ordered from a different place, and yet the same delivery boy came with the food. This is what really clued me in that something was wrong. What’s the saying again? Once is an occurrence, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern? Well, this was the third time this kid had shown up on my doorstep with takeout.

Out of sheer curiosity I asked him, ‘What’s your name?’

He blinked, like he’d never been asked that before. ‘Yeosang,’ he told me.

‘You just seem to work everywhere,’ I said. He stuttered through some excuse, mumbling enough so that I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. He took the money, shoved the food into my hands, and ran. I was too stunned to follow him.

The next day there were still no messages from my group. I was starting to get worried. What if something had happened to them? What if one of them was injured? I tried calling Jin. He didn’t pick up. I called Namjoon next. No reply. I eventually tried calling every single member, and not a single one answered the phone. I left a few voicemails. They started off calm, but by the end I’m sure they were more frantic.

It was like my friends had disappeared off the face of the earth. Actually, it was like everyone had. I went back online to see if they’d posted on social media, but there were no updates on any accounts. Not even just a text message or selfie. The accounts had all stopped updating days ago, and not just our account. Every account. Whenever I tried to refresh the pages, there were no new posts or photos from anyone.

That never happens. There are always status updates, or comebacks or _whatever_. But there was nothing. Not from my group, other groups… hell, not even my friends who weren’t idols. Everyone had just gone radio silent. It was like the whole world was on break.

I finally started panicking. I threw on my coat and walked outside my apartment. I didn’t meet anyone in the halls or pass anyone on the stairwell. I walked down the street and while there were cars parked along the roads, there were none driving through. The sidewalks were empty and so was every store and building I passed.

And then I remembered that kid. Yeosang. I’d seen him every day, surely he knew something. I ran to the restaurant I had first ordered from, hoping he’d be there. The restaurant was dark and the doors were locked despite it being business hours. There was no one inside the building or in the parking lot. No sign of Yeosang either. I checked the other two places I had called as well, and they were both in similar states.

It was getting cold out as the sun set. My feet hurt. The only option seemed to be to head back to the dorm, but I was scared to return. When the month had begun, I had been so excited to have some alone time but now… the silence and loneliness was killing me. I needed to see someone, _anyone_, just to confirm it wasn’t just me in this city, maybe even the world.

I was outside the apartment when I saw him. The delivery guy. At first I was so relieved to see another person, but then I felt dread growing in my stomach as I approached. He was holding food I hadn’t ordered. He looked right at me as I walked up to him.

‘I was worried you wouldn’t be home,’ he told me, handing me the food.

‘I didn’t order this,’ I said. He didn’t reply.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked him, ‘Where is everyone.’

He looked away from me. ‘They’re home,’ he said, ‘And we’re here.’ And then he ran away before I could ask anything else. I reached out to grab him, but he slipped right out of my fingers. And then he disappeared. I couldn’t tell you how. I just saw him running one minute, and then the next he was gone. And I was alone.

I walked up to my room with the food in a daze. It felt like… like being a class pet. I don’t really know how much that hamster or guinea pig can really conceive of their owner’s existence. To them, am I just a hand that appears with food and then leaves them to their own devices? Is their cage their whole world?

I was that hamster in a cage, being kept alive for the amusement of some cosmic thing that probably thought of me as an interesting experiment. Or maybe I’m giving myself too much credit. Who’s to say that I wasn’t just being forgotten in my own little universe? What if no one was thinking about me at all?

On my third week I was barely leaving my room. I had no energy. I slept until I was hungry. And then Yeosang would be at the door with food. He would give me the meal, avoid any questions, and then slip out of my grasp. I gave up trying to figure him out halfway through that week. It was clear he wasn’t going to help me.

In the end, I’m not entirely sure what got me out of it. Maybe whatever was playing its game with me got bored of watching me sleep and do little else. Maybe Yeosang took pity on me. Maybe it was because the Power of Friendship freed me from my prison, the least likely theory in my opinion. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.

At the beginning of week four, I was free. I knew it because that morning I woke up to my phone ringing. At first I was groggy with sleep, not fully comprehending it, but then I sat bolt upright. My phone had stopped ringing, but when I unlocked it I saw that I had hundreds of messages and voicemails from all of my group mates.

As I listened to them, I started shaking. They had all been worried. In one of his messages, Namjoon said he was flying in that evening. Apparently he’d gotten one of my increasingly frantic voicemails and was worried I was going stir crazy. Both Jimin and Taehyung were threatening to drive back to Seoul and break down the apartment door. I know I really worried Jungkook and Hoseok if their panicked messages were any indication. Jin had left at least fifteen messages alternately telling me that I was an idiot for staying home alone and saying I should take a train out to his house.

I’m really not an emotional guy but… All of that meant so much to me.

Namjoon did actually make it back that evening. I’m sure I looked like a mess. He stepped up though, like a leader. He managed to get me food, actual food and not just takeout, and water and then forced me to take a shower. I felt a little less numb with every passing minute. When it was time to sleep, I asked if we could sleep out in the living room. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle sleeping by myself in my room. He agreed, not even questioning it. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully tell him how grateful I am.

I haven’t seen Yeosang since then. I’m more than fine with that. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be ordering out anytime soon.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist]**

“We’ve tried our best to follow up on this statement, but it has been a challenge to find a way around Mr. Min Yoongi’s schedule. His group, BTS, is so busy that neither Sehyoon or Byeongkwan could manage to get an opening. Any follow up there will probably be months in the making.

As for Yeosang… again it was very hard to do research on someone when no last name is included. Donghun has tried to get employee records from the three restaurants Mr. Min Yoongi mentioned in his statement, but there are quite a few policies in place to protect employee privacy. The apartment BTS was in at the time reported no unusual sightings or behavior for the time frame provided. In fact, there was nothing happening at the time that might have led to (or at least lended the illusion of) the mysterious town wide disappearance Mr. Min Yoongi experienced.

I’m not sure that-“

“Hello!”

“Um, hello?… This place is off limit to civilians. How… how did you even get down here?”

“Oh, well, that’s easy! No place is ever off limits when you know the right doors!”

“…Right, well. Mr.?”

“Yunho! You can call me Yunho.”

“Mr. Yunho. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“But I’m here on business!”

“What kind of business could you possibly have with the Archives department?”

“Why, the business of making a statement, of course!”

“…You want to make a statement?”

“Sure! Seems like fun! I think some of my friends have shown up in some before!”

“I wouldn’t know. Have you had a supernatural experience lately?”

“Of course! I’ll tell you all about it. You should probably change out that tape though. It’s a bit of a long story.”

“Oh, right, I’ll just-“

**[Recording ends]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeosang: I have never seen one man consume so much takeout in my life.


	7. Rising Action

**[Recording Begins]**

“-re we go. Right. So, you’ve come in to make a statement? Usually we take those back in the main area and not the basement. It’s considerably more comfortable there if you’d like.”

“Oh no, this is fine. Great even! I’ve always wondered what it was like down here.”

“You have? Do you follow the Institute very closely?”

“Probably more than the average person! I find your work quite fascinating. And mysterious too! Everyone’s heard about The Magnus Institute, but no one ever goes inside. You know when I was younger, my friends and I dared each other to try and sneak in? We never managed it, of course. The front desk workers always caught us.”

“Yes, security here is pretty tight. Which is why I’m a bit curious as to how you managed to get down here.”

“Like I said, I know the right doors.”

“…Alright. Well I guess we’ll get your statement then, since you went through so much trouble to be here.”

“Fantastic!”

“Case number 0191026. Statement of…sorry, can I have your last name please?”

“Of course! It’s Jeong. Jeong Yunho.”

“Thank you. And what are you talking about today?”

“Oh, just a little bit about my past.”

“I see…”

**[Case number 0191026. Statement from Jeong Yunho regarding his…past. Statement taken directly from subject. Statement begins.]**

“Wow, that’s quite an introduction!”

“Please just tell your story.”

“Alright, alright. Hmph. Sorry, the details are a bit hazy given how long it’s been. Probably before you even worked here, ha!

I actually used to be a trainee. I know, surprising! Or maybe not with my looks? Oh, don’t make that face, it’s a joke! But yes, I actually used to dream of becoming a K-pop idol. Wild, right? But I managed to make it into a company!

I was actually a pretty good dancer back then. I think I still am, but I haven’t really been practicing lately with how busy I am. Maybe someday I’ll be able to go back to practice. Not sure about that, but…

So one day, one of the managers approached me and a few other trainees that the company had at the time. I won’t mention names or the company. I feel like I could probably get in legal trouble for that although, _ha!_, I can’t believe I’m still worried about that after everything that’s happened. Must be a force of habit.

Anyway, they offered to let us tag along to one of the music shows while a group from our company was filming. We all agreed without a second thought. It was a priceless opportunity for any trainee. A chance to monitor your company seniors along with other accomplished idols? A dream come true.

We were all practically vibrating with excitement when we climbed into the company van that day. I started discussing what it would be like with one of the other boys. We speculated about the sets, the outfits and styling, the length of filming, all of it. I wasn’t prepared for all of the cameras outside the studio.

The group from our company that was actually having a comeback had to walk in front of a sea of photographers to pose for their fansites. And there were a lot of fansites. Even as I was herded by a manager through a side door, I could hear the screaming and camera flashes. It was overwhelming. I remember thinking that one day I would be the one standing over there. It might have been arrogant of me but… I was going to debut, one way or another. I’d fight tooth and nail for it. I miss having a goal as clear as that.

We were led to a waiting room backstage and downstairs. Most of the actual idols would be in the upstairs area in their own personal waiting and styling rooms. In our room we had a couple of couches, a mini-fridge with water bottles, and a large television mounted to the wall. I’d assumed that was what we’d be watching all of the other groups on.

I was proved right. The manager flipped on the television so that we could see the stage. The only thing up there at that moment were crews running around moving sets and props into place. They hadn’t let the fansites or anything in yet, so it was mainly just employees yelling directions to each other. Even the cameras weren’t testing anything out, just staying with a wide shot of the stage.

I relaxed at that, realizing that it would probably be a while before anything significant happened. The other trainees all had the same idea, and a few of us grabbed water bottles from the fridge. We went back to speculating about all the idol groups that were probably sitting around in the rooms overhead. One of the trainees made a joke about going upstairs just to try and catch a glimpse of them. That joke hung in the air for a minute before the others started nudging him and laughing. Doing that would be unthinkable for trainees like us, but…

There was a door at the top of the stairs with a window in it. There were no managers watching us, evidently trusting us not to do anything stupid until a group went on stage. If we really wanted to, we could have climbed the stairs and peeked out into the hallways above. There was no way we’d manage to see anything inside the actual idols’ waiting rooms, but if anyone was in the hallway, they’d be visible. Of course if anyone spotted us spying through the window, we’d all get in trouble.

One of the other boys volunteered to go first. He said that if we went one at a time, we’d have less of a chance of being caught. He disappeared into the stairwell. We all waited in a tense silence, hardly daring to breathe. I know my heart was beating hard in my chest, I could practically hear it in my ears. I was half expecting a manager or crew member to return and yell at us, possibly taking away our dinner privileges, but that never happened. The boy returned with the biggest grin on his face.

‘I saw Monsta X,’ he claimed proudly. A lot of the other boys shoved him and accused him of lying, but he insisted that he saw the group. ‘They were in the hallway talking,’ he said, ‘They were about to go into one of the makeup rooms.’

After that, the others were a lot more eager to take the risk and go upstairs. I’ll admit, I was too. Some of the boys weren’t successful, returning with disappointed expressions. Others had a bit more luck, managing to catch one or two members of a more popular group or aspiring rookies. When one of the boys claimed to have seen V from BTS for a split second, I knew I had to go up just to see. I volunteered to go next.

The staircase to the floor above wasn’t long. Maybe fifteen steps or so, six steps then a turn and nine more until the doorway. It wasn’t like it was a challenge or anything, but it did take you out of view from both the waiting room we were all in. I’d like to say I was confident climbing the first six steps, but my legs were shaking. I was worried that we’d used up all of our luck and that I’d be the one to finally meet a manager on the stairway.

I came to the turn and walked up the nine steps to the door. Only the door wasn’t at the end like I was expecting. Instead, there were six more steps. I wondered if I’d somehow misremembered how long the stairwell was. I climbed the steps there, only to be met with another turn and more steps. When I climbed those, there were still more.

I looked up only to see stairs stretching out above me until it became so dark that I couldn’t see anything else. I thought I’d maybe missed the landing somehow and turned back the way I came, intending to go back down. But I only found more steps, the door leading to the waiting room had vanished. 

And then I felt it. A creeping dread coming from the bottom of the stairs. I knew that if I turned around and headed back the way I came, there’d just be more and more stairs. I climbed. I didn’t know what else to do.

At first it was easy. I liked to think I was pretty in shape with all the dance practice and exercise I did. But that strength and confidence I felt initially only lasted so long. I climbed those stairs until my legs ached and my lungs wheezed. My arms were trembling, grabbing blindly at the handrails as I continued to pull myself up and up and up. And yet, there were more stairs.

As I became more and more exhausted, the stairs seemed to stretch and lengthen in front of me, growing in height and width. At one point I think the stairs were at least three feet high and ten feet across. I fell into a cycle of using my arms to heave my body up each step, dragging myself forward, only to do it all over again. 

I don’t know how long I climbed. Hours. Days, maybe. Though I was tired, I kept finding the energy to go just one more step, one more flight.

I started losing focus after that. I didn’t recall why I was on the steps in the first place. I didn’t know why I was still climbing. I couldn’t remember anything I’d done before I was on the staircase. At one point I nearly forgot my own name. All that existed were the stairs and all that I could do was keep pushing myself forward, step by painful step.

Eventually, my body did give out. My arms wobbled and collapsed trying to lift me up to the next step, and my legs buckled, landing me on my back. I looked up just to see more and more steps. There was no end. No doorway. Nothing to keep me going, and yet something told me to keep climbing. Well, it was too late at that point. I was flat on my back without any energy to get myself back to my feet. 

My breathing was thin but I managed to laugh. It wasn't a happy laugh, more like a laugh born of fear and hysteria. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I kept laughing until I was crying. I realized I was going to die on those stairs.

And then something amazing happened. As I stared at those steps overhead, they started to twist. At first I thought I was hallucinating, that the churning steps were an illusion brought on by exhaustion and my own fading consciousness. But then I realized I could control it. At first they turned counter clockwise, stretching up. But as I focused more, I tried to spin them the other way, and they complied.

The first time I did this, I nearly threw up. The spinning stairs made me nauseous. But I kept at it until the steps were spinning both above and below me, stretching and twisting into impossible shapes. Energy like lighting coursed through my veins. I got back to my feet and onto the stairs, and they bent to my will.

They soared up and down in front of me like birds, shifting and twisting as I ran. I crossed over them in hills and valleys, moving forwards and backwards and sideways and even upside down. I finally understood all the different directions I could go. I understood how to manipulate my path. As I formed all of the writhing shapes and steps, it felt like I too was twisting and turning into something new.

Finally, finally, I returned. I found a door. I opened it. I was in the music show building. The normalcy of the place was disorienting after my time on the stairs. A manager roughly grabbed my arm. He yelled at me for leaving the waiting room downstairs. Instead of being afraid, I nearly laughed. After everything I wasn’t scared of being punished anymore. All I could think was that I was sorry that the man in front of me couldn’t experience the same understanding with the pathways that I had.

And then…I realized I could show him. We were still near the stairs. The door was open. It happened slowly from my perspective, though it probably only lasted a few seconds. My hand closed around around his and pried it off my arm with a strength I never realized I had. Maybe I hadn’t had that kind of strength before, now that I think about it.

He was shocked for a moment, before he started yelling again. I barely heard him. I tugged his arm in one quick movement so that he stumbled to the top of the stairs. He teetered on the edge for a minute. I saw fear in his eyes. It made my stomach twist with joy.

I let go and he fell down and down and down. He never reached the bottom. 

I left the company not long after. No one really noticed. After the manager went missing, they were mostly concerned with replacing him and managing the media response. They didn’t have time to waste on another trainee who couldn’t hack it. I tried my hand at a few other jobs. Some very _very_ interesting ones. But I find that I can’t seem to sit still for very long. I have to keep pressing forward. I have to keep moving up.”

**[Statement ends]**

“…Is this a confession?”

“Not exactly. And I know you don’t take these statements to the police anyways. Ah, this was actually quite cathartic! I feel like I finally understand why so many people come here to give statements!”

“You killed a man!”

“Not like you can prove it. What would you say? ‘Oh, that man who went missing… he was pushed down a never ending staircase!’ You’d be laughed out of the precinct.”

“…Why have you come here then?”

“I told you, I’m here to make a statement-“

“That’s not the real reason.”

“Oh, you are a sharp one! Alright. I’ve come here to try and see how much you know.”

“Me?”

“That’s right. Your position is very famous. Like I said, I’ve been interested in The Magnus Institute for a while. But now that I’m here, I see that I might have shown my hand too soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“That right there is what I’m talking about. Your predecessor neglected teaching you much of anything.”

“Taemin? Do you know what happened to him?”

“I’m feeling nice today, so I think I’ll give you a hint. What do you think controls the world, Archivist?”

“…what?”

“Do you think it’s money? Love?”

“I don’t see how this is relevant-“

“Just answer the question.”

“I… Maybe authority? Class?”

“Good guesses. But wrong. It’s fear. Fear controls the world. Fear of losing people, fear of powerful forces beyond our control, fear of the other… all kinds of fear. And there are older fears, strong enough to influence the inner workings of reality.”

“I don’t understand. What does this have to do with my predecessor?”

“You’ll learn. You have to. Thank you for your help. I’ll see you soon, Jun.”

_[sound of a door closing]_

“Did…did I tell him my name?”

**[click]**

“Yeah, that’s definitely weird, Jun.”

“Glad you agree Yuchan. Keep an eye out for him. If you see him again, call security.”

“What did you say his name was again?”

“Jeong Yunho.”

“I feel like I’ve heard that name before… Let me do some digging.”

**[click]**

“J…J…Jeong…Aha! There it is. Jeong Yunho, I knew I’d seen that name before! ‘Employed for two years… Archival assistant to Lee Taemin… disappeared under mysterious circumstances’… oh there’s a note from Taemin! ‘The Spiral’-“

“Hello!”

“Ah! Oh, you scared me!”

“Apologies, that wasn’t my intention. Yuchan, right?”

“H-how did you know that?”

“I hear a lot of things.”

“You’re…Jeong Yunho?”

“At your service.”

“Who are you? These documents have you listed as working here ten years ago, but you look like you haven’t aged a day.”

“Thank you! I do miss my time in the Archives. Incredible stuff you’ve got here.”

“What do you want?”

“Oh, nothing yet. I still have to wait for your Archivist to get a clue.”

“Jun? What do you mean? Stay away from him!”

“At this point…I don’t think that’s possible anymore.”

“I…I have to go!”

_[sound of a door closing]_

“Have it your way, Yuchan…I’ll see you at the bottom of the stairs.”

**[Recording ends]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yunho: I never skip Leg Day


	8. Air Time

**[Recording begins]**

“-am really starting to get worried, Jun. Yuchan hasn’t been into work going on two days now, and he hasn’t even called to explain. That’s not like him!”

“I’m sure he’s fine, Byeongkwan. Probably just sick or something.”

“Then why wouldn’t he have called?”

“Maybe he forgot?”

“You and I both know that’s not true. His phone’s practically surgically attached to his hand.”

“Look, we can all swing by his apartment today after work to check on him, alright? I’m sure he’ll have some kind of an explanation as to why he’s been missing work.”

“I hope you’re right.”

**[click]**

“I’ve managed to sort through my predecessor’s tapes to a certain extent, though it will doubtlessly take me a considerable amount of time to complete the recordings. However, I did find a single tape from the collection at the bottom of the stairs this morning.

I imagine one of my assistants must have accidentally dropped it trying to clean up the basement. I’ll have to have a meeting with all of them regarding the handling of Archive materials. Luckily, the tape doesn’t appear to have been damaged.”

**[Case number 0120324. Statement from Bang Chan regarding a flight he took when he was younger. Recording created by Lee Taemin, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“Do you always use tape recorders for the kinds of things? Aren’t those a little outdated? Sorry, I don’t mean to criticize you, mate. ‘M sure they’re reliable enough, it just seems like it’d be more efficient to use a computer or something, y’know?

Oh right, my story. Have to say, it’s been a tick since. Some of the details are screwy, ‘m sure I exaggerated some things as a kid. There’s no way it was all actually real.

I’ll just tell you what I thought I saw though, maybe you’ll be able to make some sense of it, eh? If not, no harm done then. Maybe you could sell it as a movie or something.

It all began when I flew over to Korea from Sydney. I was pretty young. Honestly, ‘m surprised my parents let me do it, yeah? But I was grateful. Y’see, I’d just gotten accepted into a company, don’t think I can mention their actual name, after I sent in my audition tape. ‘M still with that company. Hopefully I’ll debut soon. Maybe. Got a few mates with me now, so we’ll be alright, ‘m sure.

Anyway, back then I was flying over all by myself. I think there were a few extra instructions I had to follow at check-in, as I was an unaccompanied minor, but it wasn’t really that much of a hassle. Didn’t have good seats though, economy. Definitely not the most comfortable for the flight, but it wasn’t like I planned on flying again anytime soon. Back then I was hoping the next time I boarded a plane would be to go on tour. Ha, I was a dreamer!

Still remember my seat number from then too, 26 B! It was an aisle seat, which I was pretty stoked about. Wouldn’t have to worry about waking anyone up to go to the bathroom. Also I’d be able to wake up when the snack cart came around.

When I finally boarded and got all my luggage in the overhead bin, I noticed my seat partner was already snoring away in his own chair. He had his seat all leaned back and his tray down as well. He’d also left his boarding pass on his tray table, just out in the open.

I’ll admit, I was a bit curious. I glanced just at his name, nothing else. Park Seonghwa, ‘m pretty sure that’s right. I think I was just excited that I was next to another Korean bloke. Maybe if he woke up we could talk about what I could expect when I got there, y’know?

Eventually, the attendants started coming around for final checks and everything. I remember one had to lean over me and wake ‘em up and ask ‘em to put his tray and seat up. The guy gave her a friendly enough nod and followed her instructions without complaining. I figured he was probably nice enough, which is why I started talking to ‘em. That was a mistake.

I turned to ‘em and introduced myself. Told ‘em why I was heading to Korea, and about becoming a trainee and hopefully an idol one day. Probably not my smartest move but, like I said, I was young.

He smiled at me. Said that was cool and that he’d actually been a trainee when he was younger too, though he mentioned a different company than my own. I remember he said it hadn’t lasted very long. I dunno now if he was telling the truth, but he seemed to be honest enough at the time. He then wished me luck with my own training and said he’d be watching for my debut.

After everything… I hope he doesn’t still remember me.

He eventually went back to sleep when the plane leveled out, and I ended up drifting off myself. I dunno how much time passed, but at some point in the middle of the flight I was woken up by ‘em jostling my shoulder. I looked over to see ‘em asking to get out to use the toilets. I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out into the row still half asleep, though he seemed to be much more awake. I think I just collapsed back in my seat once he got out into the aisle and started walking toward the back of the plane, though I didn’t try to fall back asleep. I mean, I’d just have to wake up and move again when he got back, so I didn’t really see much point, y’know?

He was gone for a while. Maybe there was a line for the bathroom or something. I leaned over his empty seat and raised the little cover over the window, but I could only see the wing of the plane. It was night, and I couldn’t even make out any stars beyond the glass.

Eventually he did return, and I got back in the row to let him into the seats. He noticed the cover was up and grinned at me. ‘Anything interesting out there?’ he asked me.

I shrugged, ‘Not much to see,’ I said. 

‘I’m sure something will pop up eventually,’ he said, buckling back in. I did the same.

It was… about a half hour later, I believe, when I saw it. Now this is going to sound crazy, I know, but when I glanced out the window absentmindedly, it looked like there was some bloke on the wing of the plane. I froze in my seat then, not quite believing what I was seeing. I was too shocked to even make a noise. 

The person out there appeared to be a middle aged man on his hands and knees, clinging desperately to the smooth metal below him. He couldn’t seem to find a grip, eventually dropping until he was on his stomach, his fingers the only things saving him from flying off into either an engine or worse, open sky and a long drop below.

I looked around the plane cabin desperately to see if anyone else had noticed the man out there, or maybe to flag down a flight attendant to… I don’t know. Maybe open the emergency exit or something? Is there a protocol in the attendant handbook for this kind of situation?

But everyone onboard was asleep. Or maybe a better word is unconscious. Even the flight attendants. One was passed out over her cart in the middle of the aisle, the metal cat listing a bit to the side and bumping into one of the knocked out passengers who didn’t seem to notice. The only ones awake on the plane were me and Park Seonghwa. Oh, and the guy on the wing, I guess.

I turned to my seat partner and I knew in my gut that he had done _something_ do make this all happen. ‘What did you do?!’ I asked.

He just… laughed. I wasn’t sure if he was laughing at me. It didn’t really feel like it, if that makes sense. More like he was just laughing t the situation, though it was far from funny.

Suddenly, the plane dropped, faster and steeper than any turbulence would create. I abruptly realized that if everyone else on the plane was asleep, it was likely that the pilots were as well. My brain ran through a thousand scenarios of what might happen, all of them ending in a fiery crash.

The plane began to nosedive. I gripped my armrests so hard, I’m surprised my fingers didn’t leave indents. My stomach was in my throat, and I could barely hear my own heartbeat over the downward rush of wind. The whole time, that man next to me just laughed like he was on a roller coaster and we weren’t all hurtling toward our deaths. The flight attendant who had been in the aisle flew down the row and crashed in a heap at the end of the section. Her drink cart followed, narrowly missing crushing her head. Drinks and broken glass shards went everywhere, though that was the least of my issues at the time.

I’m not sure why, but I found myself looking out the window again. I saw the man out there barely managing to hang onto the wing as we continued our dive. He silently screamed as all his shouts were ripped away. We locked eyes for a moment, and in his I could only see pure terror. 

And then he was gone.

At that moment, everything shifted. The plane abruptly leveled out from our downward trajectory so fast that my head snapped back and hit the headrest. Black spots immediately swarmed my vision. Eventually, when my head finally cleared, I could see that the cabin lights had come on and a few people were waking up, grumbling at some perceived minor inconvenience and apparently completely unaware of our near death experience.

The captain’s voice crackled over the intercom, ‘We’ve hit a slight bit of turbulence,’ he said, ‘Please keep your seat belts fastened until we reach optimal cruising altitudes again.’ The flight attendants were cleaning up the spilled drink cart absentmindedly, something faraway in their gazes. None of them commented on the twisted metal or shards of glass. 

Beside me, Park Seonghwa had gone back to sleep.

We landed without anymore incidents. No one mentioned the sudden loss of control, or the man who had been on the wing of the plane. If he had, in fact, been a passenger, it appeared that he didn’t exist on any of the attendants’ boarding logs. As far as the plane’s staff were concerned, they’d left and landed with the same number of passengers.

As soon as I was in the gate, I high tailed it as far away from my seat partner as I could. It didn’t end up mattering. He found me at the baggage claim and, well, it felt a bit impolite to move away. Funny how manners work.

I wanted no part of whatever freaky stuff he’d done earlier, and I told ‘em as much. He just smiled. We stood next to each other waiting for our luggage. I was probably radiating tension, given how tightly I was wound.

When my bags finally dropped, I loaded them onto a cart as fast as I could manage. I’d just swung the cart around and made for the exit when I tripped over my own laces. There was a hand suddenly on my arm, steadying me.

‘Careful,’ Park Seonghwa said, ‘Wouldn’t want to fall.’

I rushed away without thanking him and jumped into the first taxi I saw.

I never head anything about that man on the plane wing, like, they never found a body or anything. No one announced a missing person after the flight either. Sometimes though, I dream I’m in his place, desperately trying to stay on the wing of the plane. But eventually, inevitably, I lose my grip and fall off. And I keep falling and falling and I never hit the ground.

I was probably hallucinating. I was probably just stressed about moving to a new country and half asleep. Maybe my brain exaggerated a bit of turbulence.

But I just can’t shake the dreams. I can’t stop the feeling of falling. I’m not sure if I’m more scared of hitting the ground, or of never doing so.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from Lee Taemin]**

“It appears that The Vast has finally started moving toward Korea. I’ll admit, this has me wary as The Buried, The Eye and The Corruption are already beginning to make their plays here as well. And, if Jinki’s warnings are anything to go by, The Lonely may be looming on the horizon.

Unsurprisingly, my assistants were unable to find any public record of this Park Seonghwa character, though I’m sure his name will begin cropping up more often. I-“

“Mr. Lee! Oh, sorry, are you recording?”

“It’s alright, Yunho. Tell me, did you finish that research I assigned you?”

“Oh yeah! Here’s all the reports on Choi San that I found from that report on the recent flu outbreak.”

“Thank you. And your… other assignment?”

“Huh? Oh, right. Uh, there are 329 steps in the Institute. Is there any particular reason you needed that information or…?”

“Just a bit of personal research I’m conducting regarding the building’s history. Nothing to worry about. How did your recent audition go for that company you were talking about?”

“Oh! Good, thanks! They gave me a call back so I have a follow up audition this weekend!”

“Congratulations. We’ll miss you here at the Archives, but I’m sure you’d rather not spend your life here.”

“W-well, I mean-“

“It’s alright. We’ll just have to put you to work here while we still can. Speaking of which, can you help Junmyeon with pulling records from that 2004 case?”

“Yeah, sure!”

_[sound of a door closing]_

“My suspicions seem correct. The Institute only has 187 stairs by my count. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Spiral makes its move once Yunho leaves the relative safety of the Archives, though it is a bit of a pity. Perhaps I should have Junmyeon check in on him again in a month or so.”

**[Note from the Head Archivist, Park Junhee]**

“That… couldn’t have possibly been Jeong Yunho…right? It sounded like him but… no, no. I’m just being paranoid. Maybe Donghun was right, and I’ve been spending too much time in the basement. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but I’ll just have to check the employee records to make sure-“

**[click]**

“Why is the page missing? It should be right…”

“Jun? Everything alright?”

“Ah! Byeongkwan, you scared me!”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s just… nothing.”

“Uh, if you say so. Anyways, the others are ready to head out for the evening. We were gonna go check on Yuchan, remember?”

“Oh. Oh, right! Let me just grab my coat.”

**[Recording ends]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seonghwa: My true power is Frequent Flyer miles.


	9. In Passing

“That’s it. I’m calling the police.”

“Byeongkwan, wait.”

“What for _what_, Jun?! Yuchan hasn’t been in for a week, and he wasn’t at home when we tried to check! None of his neighbors have heard from him in just as long! He’s _missing_!”

“I’m sure it’s nothing so severe, maybe he just had a family emergency of some kind…”

“And you think he wouldn’t even send a text if that was the case? Listen, he’s not that irresponsible.”

“I…You’re right. We should make the call.”

“Finally. I’ll go talk to Donghun. If anyone knows who to contact about this, it’s him.”

“Yes. Let me know if they need a statement from Yuchan’s supervisor.”

“You got it.”

**[sound of a door closing]**

“God… Well, I guess I can only wait to see what happens. In the meantime, where are my-? Oh, there are the tapes. Might as well get started on a recording. Let’s see…”

**[Case number 0180916. Statement from Lee Taeyong regarding a conversation he overheard at a local convenience store. Recording created by Park Junhee, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. Statement begins.]**

“I try not to stick out, laughable as that sounds. I tend to be the center on stage, but I don’t carry that attitude into my personal life. If anything, I’d love to not be noticed. Especially because ever since my debut it’s been harder and harder for me to go out on my own anywhere without being rushed by fans or news outlets. Even if I’m just going to the convenience store! Sometimes I actually see people camping right outside our dorms. It’s like living under a magnifying glass all the time.

I have to look like being watched doesn’t get to me. I think the younger members would get even more anxious about it if I did. Mark’s the most stressed about it, and I don’t blame him. Half a year ago we had a pretty terrifying encounter with a fan- oh, but I think he already told you about that.Actually, that’s why I’m here in the first place. Mark said he told you all the story and felt a lot better after getting it off his chest. I’ve been sitting on my own story for so long that I was wondering if I’d ever be able to tell it at all. I’m sorry if this turns out to be a waste of time, but I think you guys are the most likely to listen.

It happened years ago, back when I was just starting out as an idol. I was going down to the convenience store to pick up some ramen. I probably shouldn’t have, I was on a pretty strict diet, but I was hungry and we still had plenty of time before our next comeback. I could practically hear my manager lecturing me but… I convinced myself that it wouldn’t affect me too badly. I’d just do more exercise the next day or something. The convenience store was right on the corner of our dorms. All of us go there a lot after rehearsals if our manager isn’t there.

That evening in particular was pretty unremarkable in terms of both notable events and weather. It was getting dark out, and I just planned on running in, grabbing the food, and heading back out. No reason to linger any longer than necessary.

And then… the oddest thing happened. I was walking toward the store. There was a girl standing on the side of the sidewalk texting on her phone, and a boy heading my direction in the distance. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

And then someone just breezed right past me.

I know that shouldn’t be anything noteworthy, being passed on the street, but the person who walked by me just felt… off. I don’t know how else to describe it. It was like he had an aura of some kind, and just radiated a feeling that set my teeth on edge. Suddenly, I wanted to turn around and run the other direction, but I was so deathly afraid that doing so might draw his attention.

He apparently didn’t notice me. He continued walking past me and the girl, but he stopped when he reached the other boy walking my way. He just whispered something in the boy’s ear. I couldn’t hear it, but the other boy just stopped in his tracks with an expression of absolute terror on his face. The person who’d whispered something continued on down the street like nothing had happened until he turned a corner and disappeared, but the other just continued standing there.

I was just about to call out to him and ask if he was alright, when he started moving again. It wasn’t a natural kind of movement either. Weird and somehow clunky. Like he was was a puppet juddering forward on a string. He walked toward the girl on her phone, who didn’t even look up as he approached, and then he pushed her into the alley.

And she disappeared.

I don't mean like she fell to the ground and out of sight. It was like as soon as she fell into the alley, she evaporated without a trace that she had ever been there in the first place. She hadn’t cried out, and when I looked around I didn’t see anyone aside from the boy who was still blankly staring at the spot that girl had just vanished from.

I didn’t know what to do. How do you even respond to that kind of situation? Should I have gone up to him? Demanded an answer? Should I have run into the alley to check and see if the girl was still somehow there? Maybe. I’ve played the scenario through a hundred times in my head, and I have yet to come up with a good answer.

What I actually did was run into the convenience store. I think I was planning on asking for a phone and maybe calling the cops or something. I didn’t know what had happened, but it might have been an assault. Or a… non-consensual magic trick of sorts.

I ran up to the counter. There was no line, and worse, no cashier. Maybe he was on his break, or in the back room looking for something. Either way, I was out of luck there. I looked around the convenience store to see if there was anyone else. Luckily, or I guess unluckily in retrospect, there were two boys in the back near the ice cream freezers. I went up to them.

I don’t like approaching people out of the blue. You may not expect this if you've only seen me on music shows, I’m actually pretty awkward around strangers. I know it was an emergency but I just have a hard time looking people in the eye, and also I was panicking pretty badly at the time. At least, that’s my explanation because otherwise I really don’t have a good excuse for not remembering what the two guys looked like. I’m sorry I can’t give you a more concrete description of them other than I know they were pretty young.

‘Excuse me,’ I said, getting their attention. I’m not sure what they had been discussing before I arrived.

‘Oh,’ one of them, I recall him holding a bag of takeout, said. Judging from the hesitation in his voice, I got the feeling that he didn’t like talking to strangers much either.

‘Can we help you? You look like the world is ending,’ the other said. He laughed, like it was a joke I should be in on. Even though I can’t recall his own eyes, he had embroidered patches with eyes all over his jacket. If I’d been thinking clearly and not in a rush, I probably would have questioned it. Then again, I’ve made a few weird fashion choices myself in the past few years, so who am I to judge?

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, ‘But can I borrow one of your phones? I think… I think someone was just hurt outside.’

‘An accident?’ The one carrying the takeout bag asked.

‘I just saw a guy push this girl and…I’m not sure. I didn’t see exactly what happened,’ I said. Both of them looked at each other when I said that.

‘You didn’t see?’ the one with eyes on his jacket said, ‘Maybe I can.’ And then I had this feeling in my gut like… I was being watched.

Nowadays, I’m on camera nearly all the time. I’ve performed countless times in front of thousands of people, and yet I’ve never felt this seen, and not in a good way. It was like being put on display with every single one of my mistakes and flaws and past actions up for judgment. It was paralyzing, being open like that. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, could barely think.

‘Hongjoong,’ the boy with the eyes on his jacket said. His tone sounded just totally exasperated, like I’d just inconvenienced him. As soon as he spoke the feeling of being watched stopped, leaving me numb all over. I remember just wanting to bolt out of there as fast as I could, but my legs didn’t want to move.

‘What’s he doing here? He knows we’re both here already,’ the other boy said, gaining my attention.

‘He probably wants to talk to us.’

‘Oh, great. I bet the others are coming too.’

The boy with the eyes turned back to me and I squirmed under his gaze like a worm on a hook. And for a moment, that felt familiar. I realized later that it was the same kind of feeling that the boy on the street had given me. A bit different, but still just this deep down, gut wrenching _fear_.

‘Thanks,’ he said to me. ‘Don’t worry about the police. We can handle it.’

The two of them left without another word, and I could finally draw in a breath. I crouched into a ball on the floor as soon as I could move, unable to stand up straight any longer. I don’t know how long I huddled there, shivering next to the freezers, but eventually enough feeling returned to my legs that I was able to stagger my way out of the store.

By the time I got outside, the boy who’d pushed the girl into the alley was gone, as were the two boys from the convenience store. I wasn’t surprised. I ran back to the dorms, hoping to god that I never saw any of their faces ever again. I didn’t go back to the store for a long time. I still try to avoid it if I can.

I’ve never told this to anyone else. I hoped that telling you would help me get over it. Is that selfish? Sorry. Maybe I was just hallucinating everything due to stress and hunger. Maybe I exaggerated events with time. You all probably have a hundred explanations with how many people and stories come through here. That said…I hope you never have to meet those people either.”

**[Statement ends]**

**[Note from the Head Archivist, Park Junhee]**

“According to the notes on the file, the statement giver, Lee Taeyong, was closely tied to Mark Lee who gave another account labeled… let’s see… Case number 0180812. In addition, the events described closely resemble case number 0160523. I’ve already had Byeongkwan and Sehyoon investigate the location mentioned, but perhaps we should give the area a more thorough analysis.

Well, that may have to wait until Yuchan returns to work. We’re short staffed as it is-”

“Jun!”

“Byeongkwan? What is it, I’m in the middle of something.”

“They want you to give an account of the last time you saw Yuchan.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you for letting me know.”

“No problem. Also, Donghun wants to tell you that we’re out of cleaning supplies.”

“What? We just got some earlier this week.”

“He says there’s been more cobwebs around lately.”

“Ugh. If it gets much worse I might have to speak to management about calling an exterminator. Alright, I’ll be up soon.”

**[sound of a door closing]**

“What was I saying? Oh, right. In the years since the statement has made, Lee Taeyong has not made any further comments regarding the case, even when Sehyoon reached out to him. The owner of the convenience store has similarly not identified any suspicious characters or possible leads. I’m afraid that without any further proof we’ve hit a dead end with this one.

Although… if this truly is related to case 0160523 then Kim Hongjoong is… No, I’m being paranoid. This account is over a year old. If something was going to happen, it would have happened already… right?”

**[click]**

“How far do these stairs even go down? It’s been… an hour? Two hours?

Yunho! I know you’re the one doing this! How long are you going to leave me here?!

**[…]**

Is that… a tape recorder? How’d you end up on the stairs?”

**[Recording ends]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mingi: Hongjoong's in town.  
Yeosang: Do you think if we ask really nicely he'll go away?


End file.
